This post will be dedicated to the frustration and despair that follow an unsuccessful session.
The last post shows the L.E.Ds all lighted up, after we’ve plugged them into an electricity point.
The wiring we did was temporary, so wee got together again, all happy to keep up our good work, and bought those rectangle shaped plastic connectors

As you can see - these have to entrance points. Use a screwdriver to open the screw on top of the connector, insert a wire
(or in our case - the L.E.D’s leg, like that

)
and screw the screw back into place (Man that’s a wierd sentence).
We’ve decided to use these connectors in order to replace our shaky temporary wiring, to a more stable and better looking one.
So we took our old wiring apart, wire by wire, replacing each with a plastic connector.
NOTE: The L.E.D diagram was very useful in this part too, since we lost track of the wiring a time or two, so always keep that diagram close to you while changing any part of the wiring. You can find the diagram in the “Let there be light!” post.
Once we were done, we’ve got this FINE PIECE OF WORK! and got very proud of ourselves.

As shown in the picture above, we’ve also drilled holes in the frames’ corners, so we’ll be able to attach them together using these L shaped metal parts.

Looking good eh? You bet is does!
So, what are we waiting for? Let’s plug it in again!
Well, dear readers, did you really think that everything will go as smooth as planned? Then you have to read this posts’ title again because this is the part where things got wrong.
As we plugged the frame back into the electricity point, we saw that a section of the L.E.Ds at one corner did not light up.
Furthermore - While trying to place the perspex inside the frame, we’ve noticed the the bolts that hold the L shaped pieces (hence, holding the frame attached together), block the perspex from fitting in the frame the way we’ve intnded it to.
In other words - the bolts are too big and the perspex was sticking out of the frame in a way that didn’t allow us to close the frame completely, with the perspex placed in.
Well, one problem at a time.
We’ve decided to get rid of the current L shaped pieces and replace them with differnet kind of….Yep, L shaped pieces, but this time we’ve gotten smart and went for the external kind of pieces.

These pieces hold the frame together from the L.E.Ds side (the exterior of the frame). The bolts used to put this pieces on the frame are no bigger then one of our LED lights, which doesn’t block the perspex from fitting in perfectly in the frame, just like G-D and of course - we’ve intended.
Well, you can take god off this thing, I don’t really think that he cares for MultiTouch surfaces, after all he’s got the ultimate MT Thingy, doesn’t he? He calls it “the universe” and I’m just mumbling nonsense here.
Ok, so we’ve got the new pieces to hold the frame, problem #1 is over.
Now, the main problem - What’s up with the wiring?! How comes that an entire section doesn’t work?
Let’s check it out, shall we?
We’ve grabbed the diagram and got into checking each and every conncetor. Here and there we’ve come across a wire that slipped out or a LED that didn’t fit in too well.
Pleased with our quick troubleshooting procedure, we plugged the surface back in and… Still not working!!!
So, relaxed as we were (relaxed, yeah right….steam had started to come out of our ears) we’ve double checked…again.
and again
and…..again!
Finally we’ve seen a resistor and one LED that’d slipped out of one connector.
So we’ve attended the delicate situation with maximum care when…..
AWWWWW MANNNNN IT BROKEEEEEEEE!!!!

Damn, now what do we do? Oh, of course, we’ still have one LED to fix.
So with one broken resistor and an encouraged spirit we’ve attended the LED.
we’ve gotten the connectors’ screw open when ….*SNAP!*….

As the famous saying goes - a picture is worth a thousan words. So here’s the picture, now, instead of a thousand words imagine 1000 swears. Yep, that’s our situation!
Let’s just say that the LED snaping, closed that work session.
We’ve called it the day and went chasing pigeons.
When the sun came out the next day, we bought some more LED lights, resistors and anti-depressant medication, and got back to work.
With the LED diagram at hand again, and with a lot of patience, we’ve managed to re-wire everything, bolt the frame back together with the perspex placed inside and got to the moment of truth again.
Allow me to become a redneck for a moment:
Folks, we’ve never known happiness like the one we’ve known when that surface came lightin’ all up, man, when we fir’d up that hotdamn thing we went loony as a toon, diggity damn
And back to my normal self -
When the LEDs were lit, we were back in bussiness again -
without spending another moment we’ve grabbed the webcam, the laptop and a couple of chairs, and placed them in this order:

as you can see, the camera is placed underneath the surface, so it can “see” the LED’s light-grid, the surfae itself is placed between 2 chairs, simulating approximately the height we want it to actually be.
The next few lines will be detailed in future posts, but here’s a rough description:
With the webcam connected to the laptop and the surface plugged in to elctricity, we’ve activated the “smoke” application and tried touching the surface, in order to produce somke trails.
Yeah , it worked and we’ve opened a bottle of our finest 1883 coca cola! (well, it was a 2008 one but you catch our drift here
)
the next stages will be:
1. Calibrating the camera and surface , so it will be accurate (at the moment we’ve got resolution difference so while touching the top right corner of the surface, the smoke trail appears near the middle of the screen)
2. Trying to work with a media application, such as Laurence Muller’s picture resizing application (can be found at his blog - www.multigesture.net, thanks Laurence for all the support!)
3. Buying Bob Dylan’s “Live in Bodukan” or Roy Orbisons’ “Black and white night” cd’s , but that has nothing to do with this blog
That’s all folks and remember - Do not give in to despair, hard work and double checking pays off, as well as a lot of patience!
Feel free to ask us any questions.
Roey & Itamar.
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